it won't be the same shrub without ya'

Aw, Molly Ivins has died. Now, there just ain't no justice Molly.

Moronblogger Pro-Edition

This week's public interest story seems to be about a 70 year old hiker who encountered a mountain lion and was mauled until his wife was able to fend off the creature.

You know:


















This guy.

Dude, I am so over you and your heartwarming-cautionary tale story I can barely type straight.

Counter Intelligence: Moronblogging

Friday I was in CVS and a deeply elderly man had taken up residence at the front check out. He was irate over an inferior, terrible, cheap, Made in China piece of @*#! scale that he'd purchased at CVS. And he was further mad that he had to drive, "all the way out here" to complain about it. Two CVS employees calmly took the oh-so-defective scale, inserted batteries, put it on the floor and showed the man how to weigh himself. But he was still pretty steamed about having to drive in to yell at these folks.

In Ruby Tuesday tonight (gluttons for punishment) Connor (who is alarmingly younger than Laci Peterson's Connor would have been and was thus named after the whole alarming story took place), the child of the table behind us, had a blast running up and down the aisle and feeding himself handfuls of food from the salad bar while his parents uttered an occasional "Connor, c'mere." Jac reminded me not to be judgmental, afterall, we're naming our daughter JonBenet.

I have to remind myself that I absolutely cannot leave the house without my camera for Moronblogging opportunities.

At least Jac caught the mouse that had apparently found a cozy home under the oven in our kitchen (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww) tonight.

Off My Chest: Diane Rehm

This woman said this of herself:

'What in God's name is the matter with this woman's voice?'," she says. "'How can she possibly be on the radio?'"

So I ask you, How can Diane Rehm possibly be on the radio? It really is pretty unfathomable. If I were a crossing guard and I lost both my arms, I would find another line of work. If I were a pilot and found myself blind, I think I'd take up horses.

Not Diane though.

Ah, that blog entry has been years in the making.

SOTU SITU

There is a balding little bit of white hair smirking man on my tv sitting behind another man who is running his mouth. I need a little levity.

Man, is that a smirk. The other man is talking about cutting oil use. I don't think the smirker buys it. Ew, he just winked at someone.

We finally got snow in the big city. Of course it snowed on a Sunday. I mean I am not one to look a gift flurry in the mouth, but you could hook a girl up with some weekday snow, ya know?

The scarves for good are coming along. I have to get #2 (an unfortunate name given its color) done next week. I have to fly for business next week too which should be good for knitting except that I happen to know it is middle-seat-a-rama for me all the way.

There should be more favorable knitting conditions on the train to NYC next month to go to WOOHOO Westminster. That is going to be dogtastic. Woofarific. I am hoping to stock up on doggy kitchery. Ironically, I will miss my pup like crazy. It's one of the few times I wish Lexminda the brave were teacup sized so she could just sit in my purse. She is watching the SOTU very intently right now. What can I say, she's a Washingtonian. She loves the politics. She also enjoys watching the dog shows.



















Ah, and as he broaches the subject of Iraq Lexi can't take it anymore and is out like a light. I think she just sighed.

Travelogue: Wilmington

Ah, we are back from a weekend visiting parents in Wilmington, NC. It's a lovely town. People keep telling me it's "like Charleston" but since I don't think I've ever set foot in Charleston, I suppose Charleston must be like Wilmington.

We took the pup to PetSmart which was the highlight of her trip. We went to a yarn shop and two comic book stores so we hobbyists were happy. The LYS we found was eh, okay if a girl had to get some like emergency yarn, but not-so-much I want to move there for the yarn store. (Unlike Careytown in Richmond where I do want to move for the magniferous yarn shop.)

We had a pretty view lunch at The Oceanic overlooking whatelse. We had a long-wait but a lovely dinner at Elijah's again by water. Finally, we had a great lunch and visit at The Pharmacy in Southport. We met one of the owners, a former salesman from Philadelphia. When I first spotted the place I guess I didn't get a good look because I couldn't imagine people would rave about that place. One yummy lunch later and I'm a fan.















I loved the Spanish moss hanging from the trees, the style of architecture, the "oh gee, that's a Palm tree" feeling and it was nice to see the beach. It was 75 degrees which Jac loved, but which I find just plain unsettling for January.

Knitting for Good

Mmm, now that's good times. Sale yarn, a weekend getaway, a long car ride and...




















These are scarves for Food & Friends' Valentine's drive. The cream-colored one is a pattern of seed stitch and stockinette with my very first crocheted border. I am trying to drag myself away from the computer to get the knitting moving for the evening.

I also attempted to swatch for fingerless gloves - without a clue as to how many stitches per inch my German yarn would make and I could have made toeless calfwarmers with the resulting circle. Once I finish the brown scarf I'll try those again.

6 Weird Things

Wow, it's a quiet Friday night when I look to get tagged for a meme...

http://tiennieknits.typepad.com

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog."

Six weird things about me:

1. I used to write obituaries. I did this as an intern for the local paper when I was in high school. The next year I was a telemarketer in a shady for profit boileroom operation. I'm still somewhat obsessed with reading obituaries.

2. I have stood on the border between France and Spain with one foot in each country. I also walked "home" to France from Spain through the Pyrenees.

3. I was raised in Maryland and live by the Chesapeake Bay and I loathe seafood. Seriously, never touch the stuff. I'm not allergic, didn't have a bad experience, just can't stand it.

4. When I run I taste blood. It has always been this way.

5. I quit smoking 6 years ago completely cold turkey and didn't struggle, but I loved smoking, in part because people hate it so much and would do it again if it weren't for the pesky detail that it tends to kill ya.

6. I won a drug dealer's car in a raffle in high school. My grandmother had won a car in a raffle 50 years before.

Still the New Year

I am so grateful the year has changed over that I'll write about it twice.

So what have I been up to? Well, we sold the Dread House:


We even lucked out and got cash in hand before Christmas. I have done a little knitting, but what I did do got given for Christmas so I don't think there are any new photos to share. Jac had us stay in the city this weekend, but I left the river without my knitting (any knitting AT ALL) so I have a little trip to the LYS to pick out a project planned probably for tomorrow. I have been cheating on knitting with genealogy and generally being a family archivist. I have been scanning photos galore and have been entering bunches of stuff into the family tree software. I think I have concluded that not too many generations back my family tree fails to fork. Let's just say there are quite a few people whose maiden and last names are the same. Though we are talking the 1700's here, who the heck else are you going to marry?

Jac has recently had a spate of people telling him he looks like our new Virginia Senator. This is a picture of the Senator, not Jac in case you were confused. I wonder if this means I have to think the Senator is hot now?

TGI 2007

Farewell 2006, we won't be missing you. Hello 2007 what have you got for us?

I think Jac just gave me an excuse to go to the yarn shop to buy extra needles and a new project because I left all my stuff at the river but he wants to stay in town this weekend and we're going out of town next weekend and a girl's gotta have her knitting.

Happy New Year